Donald J. Trump is calling for a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until our country’s representatives can figure out what is going on.

This follows his support for surveillance of mosques and his publicly declared openness to requiring all Muslims to register in a national database.

Mr. Trump did not immediately unveil plans for a Final Solution to the Muslim Question, but we can expect this any day now.

Not convinced that Trump is in the wrong?

Imagine that instead of Islam it is your religion or your ethnic group or whatever that he’s targeting. For example:

Donald J. Trump is calling for a total and complete shutdown of white people entering the United States until our country’s representatives can figure out what is going on.

Donald J. Trump is calling for a total and complete shutdown of Christians entering the United States until our country’s representatives can figure out what is going on.

Donald J. Trump is calling for a total and complete shutdown of women entering the United States until our country’s representatives can figure out what is going on.

Treating all of Islam as our enemy makes 23% of the world’s population our enemy. That’s insane. It’s almost the least effective possible way to attempt to target terrorists—it’s a class of people so large that it’s almost meaningless. It’s not too far removed from, for example, targeting all men simply because most terrorists are men.

I hope that this outrageous man has finally crossed some line with his supporters and that his candidacy will soon go down in flames. And yet I don’t actually expect that to happen, given his resiliency so far. But please, America, let’s keep this man as far away from the presidency as we can manage.